Archive
Photographing children; boys and girls
Few things can be so rewarding to photograph as children.
Indian boys
Indian girls
Macro focusing problems and eventual success :)
Since I first got my dedicated lens , I’ve always hated macrophotography. No matter how hard i tried I somehow always ended up with a lot of shots severely out of focus (even when I was damn sure I *got it*). Shooting handheld and not bothering to use manual focus was ofcourse part of the problem.
Then I stumbled upon some articles about “back focus” issues , I was vaguely aware of the phenomenon but thought that it was a problem seldom encountered – but decided to try out some simple techniques for finding out, I disregarded the more complicated solutions and opted for the easiest method I had read about. Puting the camera on a flat surface – and put a diagonal line of AAA batteries some distance in front of the lens.
Using the single shot focus mode (AF-S on Nikon) i focused on the centre battery and took a shot – Lo and behold; I noticed that what I focused on was not sharp, but the battery in front was. By using the AF-finetune feature on the camera, I gradually increased the “+” value, each time taking a shot. By doing this I could find the optimal setting for my lens (in my case +9). This crude way of calibrating suddenly enabled me to focus on the right spot – so I tried it out in our garden – the result was a great improvement. Need I say that I have now ordered a Datacolor Spyderlenscal to finetune all my lenses.
Although not a fantastic shot; now the focus actually works:
Backfocus fixed
- Cabbage butterfly
Forest lurker
Hat’s off to all the great macrophotographers out there – no other photographic technique frustrates me more :/ – I guess shooting handheld doesn’t make it any better. Anyways, as it happened I was out yesterday to shoot a couple of spring-themed shots when I spotted this spider on a nearby tree.
Forest lurker
Macro: Hoverfly
Shooting without a tripod or flash in they rainy breeze can be tricky – but patience is a virtue.
Hoverfly , Syrphidae
Macro: Giant Horsefly
These nasty buggers have a vicious bite.
Tabanus bovinus, Giant Horsefly
Macro Insect photography does not get much easier than this..
opiliones, harvestman
Water drop photography
Patience is a virtue in this, at times, tricky style of photography.
Water drop
Hover
Shooting water droplets is a very frustrating business , focusing in particular is pretty hard - still every now and then I try.
hovering
Macro Palette
As it happens, my good friend at http://penbow.wordpress.com has posted a similar image today 
Macro palette
a big one
a big one
Weevil (Otiorhynchus sulcatus – black vine weevil)
approx. 10mm in size.
Otiorhynchus sulcatus
Recent Comments